Heather T. Roy and Learka Bosnak have been partnered for so long some people don’t really know one without the other. The mix-ups and nicknames (all of which Learka’s husband finds highly amusing) are endless. ‘Hearka’ & ‘Leather’ and Heather’s last name being listed as ‘Anlairika’ are two fun ones. They officially teamed up in 2006 after more than a year of Heather begging Learka to do it.

Together they have sold hundreds of millions of dollars in property, collected thousands of toys for Hollywood Fire Station 27, picked up several pounds of trash on the beach with Heal the Bay, championed causes and political candidates, and have seen an insane number of properties throughout Los Angeles, the country, and around the world. They started their careers at Coldwell Banker, were recruits #5 and #6 at Teles Properties, and were there until Teles was acquired by Douglas Elliman a few weeks shy of their tenth anniversary. Though they joke it was all an industry wide plot to avoid giving them gold watches, being part of one of the most significant real estate mergers in the country was a natural fit. Plus, getting Heather and Learka to go to New York to check in at DE headquarters on Madison Avenue or London to see their Knight-Frank colleagues requires much less than an arm twist.

They have many happy clients from work throughout California, New York, Australia, Hawaii, the Coastal Carolinas, South Africa and of course Los Angeles, they have touching and glowing recommendations, but their best endorsement comes from Learka’s daughter Maxine, who is also Heather’s goddaughter. She says they are “the best at houses and work” and “get houses for everyone.” What could be more important than that?

What made you both confident that your friendship could not only survive but thrive in a professional setting?

H: We weren’t lifelong friends who decided to give real estate a go.

L: We technically met and became friends through real estate.

H: Yes! Our mutual friend was buying a house and I was her real estate agent. The house hunt wasn’t going well, nothing was the right fit so I came up with the idea for her to buy a duplex with a friend. In Los Angeles a duplex is one property with two units. The idea was more like a partnered investment strategy than just buying a condo alone. The friend suggested Learka, her friend from college, could be the investment partner, she had just sold her condo in Boston and moved to L.A from New York.

L: So Heather basically used me for my downpayment.

H: I did, insert image of me tapping my fingers together like an evil genius mastermind. And it all worked out. They bought the duplex, we became fast friends and the three of us had lots of fun.

L: The duplex was a smart investment but it also turned out to be a great place for parties and hang outs and dinners.

Can you paint a picture of the early days? What were the initial challenges you faced, and how did your friendship help you navigate?

H: The first challenge was getting Learka to be my business partner. I was so new in real estate, quickly excelling at a lot of things, the contracts the negotiating, the mechanics of the business, but I knew I was lacking in the vital interpersonal part of this work. And Learka was a super star in that area. She knows how to connect with people, and communicate and put people at ease. And also she was fancier than I was. I was a scholarship kid at Georgetown and she was legacy at Barnard. She’d been all over the world and I was 19 before I made it beyond Canada. Learka’s family was in real estate in New York and she had a law degree and she’d just ended her job as an actor’s assistant so this seemed logically perfect to me.

L: As you can imagine I didn’t find this analytical pitch very compelling.

H: Yeah, it took me forever to wear her down.

L: But I eventually gave in and gave it a try and now here we are almost two decades later.

Many advise against mixing business with friendship. What gave you the conviction to prove it wrong?

L: Our strengths weren’t the same but because we were close friends we knew our core values were the same.

H: Yeah, you actually learn a lot about a person when you throw dinner parties together. We never really questioned the wisdom of mixing business and friendship. When we did things socially we both wanted to be inclusive and always shared all the costs without struggles and accommodated the unexpected vegan or surprise guest and laughed together through the next morning clean up.

L: So we knew without really thinking about it that we were in synch on everything from honesty and integrity to showing up and doing your best. There’s no one else I’d want to share a business AmEx with!

How do you leverage your individual strengths, born out of your long-standing friendship, to create a competitive advantage in the real estate market?

H: The cool thing is that we’ve both gained strengths we didn’t start out with by learning from each other. So we have this great blend of shared confidence, skills and experience. It’s actually fun to leverage it all every day as we work. And we also hype each other.

L: Totally. I know when Heather is going to absolutely crush an obstacle, she is unflappable and finds solutions in minutes most people wouldn’t come up with in a lifetime.

H: And then the dust settles and Learka doesn’t miss a beat and says we should show this person that property because it’s closer to their kids’ school and the husband grew up in a craftsman so he will love the details and it’s closer to the dog park and the timing works with their travel schedule, because she’s a savant with those details. When we are in total flow like that, there’s nothing better.

What does “switching off” from work look like for you two? How do you ensure you have time to just be friends, without the conversation inevitably turning to business?

L: It’s hard to believe, but some days are so busy there isn’t a second to talk about anything personal. We’ll have been together all week and be at the same party on Saturday night, squirreled away to catching up.

H: People are like, ‘you are together all the time, what could you possibly have left to talk about?’ And the answer is everyyyything.

L: And we travel together every chance we get. It’s so much fun. We are in Greece right now with friends who are clients.

H: Yeah, we don’t relate to the business partners who are together so they can just cover each other’s vacations and sick days. If Learka’s daughter Maxine has a school play, we are all going to a school play.

L: Truth. Pre-Maxine, when we first started working together we sold a house from a bar on Melrose where we were both at a big fun dinner with friends. We were pals with the owners and convinced them to let us use their office to get the final counter offer signed and back to the other agent.

H: This is obviously a pre-smart phone story.

L: It was hilarious, our client was at the dinner too and she was going, ‘I can’t believe it! I just bought a house!’ and all our friends were cheering. Not sure if that was work time or down time.

H: Both!

What are the unique challenges of working with high-net-worth, discerning clients in today’s real estate landscape?

L: We wouldn’t call them challenges, just differences, things that are important to be aware of.

H: Yes, everyone likes privacy and discretion and security. There are just some situations where it is essential versus just good practice.

L: Whether someone is well known or has a particularly high net worth, they want some of the same basic things. They want to be heard, they want options, they want to know you prioritize their needs in both process and in evaluating property.

H: An interesting part of working in these situations is the sometimes complicated and layered cast of advisers.

L: We’ve had to present a clients’ preferred properties to purchase or selling plans to business managers, lawyers, parents, successful and/or famous kids, financial strategists, divorcing spouses, wealth managers, family office,

H: and on that one long conference call, to several Knights of the Crown.

L: Yes! “Please hold for Sir X and please hold for Sir Y.”

H: There are protocols and agendas, official and unofficial, but if you are thoughtful and patient and listen there is usually a way to balance everyone’s needs and make everyone feel good about the path forward.

L: And on a more practical level, when we hire assistants we do say, “If you’ve ever had a desire to take a famous person’s underwear and sell them on the internet we need to know right now.” and then see what they do.

H: It’s an effective way to cut to the chase.

L: And with all clients we always remember this is their process, their news, their story, good or bad or sensational or private. This isn’t about us.

With all of the challenges facing the real estate industry right now, how does your unique bond set you up for long-term success?

H: For better and for worse, we’ve been through this before.

L: Yeah, we’ve seen up markets and down markets, but also a slow two quarters still pales next to miscarriages and friends with cancer.

H: You can learn lessons from everything, personal and professional.

Ultimately, what do you believe is the single most important lesson that your friendship has taught you about business, and vice versa?

L: Everyone wants to be heard, in our friendship, in our other relationships and in our work.

H: And because we’ve worked so hard on our friendship we value communication and connection, we see how important it is every day.

L: Sometimes people are surprised to hear how hard we work on our relationship. We take time, we put in effort.

H: In addition to our executive coach we have a non-romantic couple’s therapist that we’ve leaned on during the hard times.

L: Relationships require attention, showing up for the fun shopping trips and weddings and also being there for the tough stuff like when Maxine, who is also Heather’s goddaughter, had norovirus and threw up all night, all over our NYC hotel room when we had a 9am work meeting the next morning.

H: Yeah, that was pretty gross.

L: If we’ve made it through that night and the Global Financial Crisis, we can probably handle anything together.

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